Abstract
The Hairy Ape IS ONE OF EUGENE O'NEILL'S MOST POPULAR plays, probably his most anthologized one, while remaining one of his most confusing plays. According to Carpenter, "The trouble is that the emotional violence of the hero and his sudden alienation from American life are not fully motivated nor explained." Carpenter is right, of course, yet I think we can better appreciate Yank's bewilderment and fury if we read this play in relation to a play O'Neill was working on in the period preceding and following the composition of The Hairy Ape: The Fountain. In order, therefore, to try to understand Yank, I want first to examine O'Neill's use of Dante in The Fountain.
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